Chapter1

//**10 Traits of Highly Effective Teachers**//

**Chapter 1** **Who is the effective teacher?**

In 1968, Jackson was quoted as stating, ".... We can never simply watch a person in action and be sure that something called teaching is going on." With all that we have learned about quality teaching in the past 40 years, does this belief still hold true? If so, how does that belief "prepare" you to be an effective evaluator of quality teaching?

Dani Carter- I think this belief doesn't hold true because every person is different. If all teachers approach a topic the same way then it only will appear to a certain few students. Just because I wouldn't have taught the lesson in the way the teacher I am evaluated has, doesn't mean that it is wrong or that teaching is not occurring. The teacher has to have the ability to reach all students by differing the approaches and portrayal of information. It also goes back to the distinction between situational vs. dispositional judging. Judging is a something that as an evaluator I will need to be doing, but I need to be careful and actually pay attention to the context. When I become an evaluator I think the most effective way I can do so is by providing concrete evidence of qualities within a teacher, such as students actively engaged, students ability to produce higher thinking thoughts and responses, and students being able to apply what they learned to other subjects. Ultimately the quality of teaching depends and revolves around the students and what they are benefiting from the teacher.

Brent Bagnall- I agree that every person is different and people have good and bad days, but we have to be able to define and observe what we think is good teaching, to make sure we have competent individuals working with our kids. The reality is that not every teacher is a good teacher. I hear people talking about "learning" taking place in the classroom and I feel that "learning" is really hard to see during an observation, but I think we can see effective "teaching" taking place. When we look at traits of effective teachers we have to ask ourselves if we can observe "command of subject matter". I think after a few times in a classroom I will have an idea of the depth of the teacher's knowledge. I believe I would be able to see "caring and concern for students." It may take some time and many classroom observations to build a mental database, but I feel I could pick out "distinctive or memorable traits" exhibited by the teacher. One of the easiest things to observe is classroom management. Many people think kids act better when their teacher is being observed, so observing discipline can be tricky. That's true, kids behaving show they care about what happens to their teacher, kid's misbehaving observation are sending a message to the administrator. I think the key to remember going forward is that no teacher is strong in all traits. Like we talked about in our first class with Dr. Pace, we have to realize sometimes "adequate" and "good" is good enough. I will not be a great principal everyday, maybe rarely a good one according to some, but I don't think I'll be consistently bad. It's the same with teachers. We all want to have a school full of stars, but maybe as evaluators it's more important to weed out the bad teachers, then focus on making everyone better. I believe the damage of one bad teacher cannot be made up by two good teachers. That may be my perspective going forward.

Vickie Robinson: Yeah on the application of situational and dispositional judging,Dani. Brent's comment about the difficulty in seeing learning is a good one....yet we can look at artifacts and products of learning!

Christine Jacobs -I think an effective evaluator can identify characteristics of a an effective teacher. I think the evaluator looks for students engagement. I think teaching is a craft, (both art and science), so the deliverance of the topic needs to be done with perseverance of the subject matter, holding the students to some level of discipline, while motivating the students to WANT to learn! Many strategies for engagement can be used. Of course, the more inquiry, higher order thinking, collaboration that the lesson involves most generally is deepening the learning and allowing knowledge to be built. I AGREE that trait # 1, p. 9, an effective teacher is one that is mission-driven and passionate. Also, Positive and real, and a leader who affects the lives of others (p. 10-11) Effective teachers must have With-it-ness, style (be yourself), motivational, instructional, lover of books and knowledge, solves problems easily, and be mentally adaptive to situations with strategy, thought and communication. These are all great characteristics mentioned in our text! I think the number one characteristic evaluators should look for would be motivation. Without that, all craft of instruction is lost and results of learning will most likely be minimal.

Annette Maier-I also agree that everyone is different. We have all come into this profession for a variety of reasons, we all have our own triumphs and struggles, and we all have our niche. One glance into a classroom isn’t going to give me the perfect picture to decide if that teacher is effective. It will definitely give me a good start, but it’s not the end all, be all.

I am reminded of my first student teaching supervisor. At our first meeting she told us that we still had a lot to learn and acknowledged that not every lesson would go perfectly, she didn’t expected them to. She said all it takes is for her to see that one lesson, that spark in us and our students, for her to know that we have what it takes to be a successful teacher. At first, this alleviated a lot of stress, we can all teach one great lesson, right? Then I began reflecting, what do I do after she has seen that one lesson, is one lesson really enough? I eventually realized that, this was a simple confidence builder. She wasn’t expecting perfection, just one great lesson. My first week of observation, she told me she saw that spark and from that point on I wanted more, more from myself and more from my students. I think back on that student teaching placement often. Looking back on it again I realize that once we discover that spark, it’s up to us to keep it up and build it into a fire. I think it is true for us as future evaluators as well. We may not see that spark every time, but when we do, how are we going to assist our teachers in building it into a fire.

That being said, I do feel that the whole process should be a culmination of factors. A few I find particularly important are your relationship with the teacher, their involvement in the school (PD, extra-curricular, fundraisers, etc), how you see them behave with students, parents, and coworkers, what you see in walk-throughs, classroom management, techniques being used, what you see during longer observations, and the work produced by students. There are probably many more I could attach to this list, but my point is that deciding if a teacher is “effective” takes some time and relationship building. We, as evaluators, must be cognizant of a variety of factors and what is going on inside the classroom, as well as, outside the classroom.

Emilie - I agree Annette, it really is a culmination of factors that makes an effective teacher. When in a classroom there should be basic factors present that assist us in defining how effective a teacher is. Some of the things I look for when going into classrooms are how engaged the students are, if the learning objective is clearly defined and if the students are able to tell me what it is, how the teacher is working with the students and how students are working with each other and what type of feedback the students are getting about the specific learning task or process at hand. So I believe that in many ways you can simply watch a person in action and be sure that teaching is going on. I have found though, that it is only in having a good relationship with the teacher, that real dialog can take place on instructional approaches to consider, to increase student achievement.

I believe that there are some things that you can simply “watch for” to know if good teaching is going. When you walk into some classrooms you get a feeling that the students are engaged and learning the material that was presented. For example, I was observing a teacher this week, when I walked in and all the students were diligently working on a project. The teacher had the expectations for the project on the board, I could just “see” that all of the students were following these expectations. I could see that teaching was going on by the way the students were acting and by the things the teacher had set up in the room. He was also walking around the room talking to students asking about the project and asking clarifying questions to help students strengthen their work.

Now, back to Jackson’s quote, I do believe that part of this holds true. In the example I used above, how will we really know if the students learned the information? There is more involved than purely observation, such as summative and formative assessment. I agree with Annette, Emilie and others there are many factors that go into quality teaching. On page 6 McEwen notes that, “content and caring are not mutually exclusive commodities,” as evaluators we will need to be prepared to look for quality teaching in each of these areas. As well as evaluating in multiple ways leaders need to understand that each teacher may be at a different spot on the continuum of effective teaching. As noted on page 8, “new teachers need time to mature. Experienced teachers need to be energized and empowered.” I think it is important for evaluators to keep in mind where teachers may be on this spectrum, and help provide the supports to build quality teaching. (Kimber)

Jordan Henrichs: I'm torn. On one hand, I can agree with the Jackson quote, technically speaking, even today, despite all that has been learned about quality teaching. Teaching and learning go hand in hand. If nothing is learned, did teaching take place? It's like the old tree falling in a forest and not making sound riddle. . . I think the Jackson quote is telling us as future principals (evaluators) that we have to take more than a classroom observation into account when "judging" a teacher's effectiveness because often times, the real student "learning" might not happen until long after the "teaching." Sometimes I feel that students would actually make the best evaluators!

On the other hand, there are lots of indicators one could look for when watching for effective teaching. Emilie's list above is awesome so I will just ditto that. Student engagement, teacher presence, feedback, etc. These are behaviors of effective teaching that can actually be observed. So to be fair, McEwan changes the definition of "teaching" on page 7: "Thus to teach also means to motivate, to facilitate, to encourage, to nurture, to lead, to cajole, and to collaborate as well as to instruct and to inform." This makes "teaching" something that can actually be observed. I can walk into a room and tell if a teacher is motivating their students. Or encouraging them, or nurturing them.

In the end, I do not think Jackson's belief holds true today, for the simple matter that the definition of "teaching" has expanded to include traits that are observable. What I can learn from the Jackson quote, is that I need to pay attention to what my teachers do, and not just during the 45 minutes I pop into their room for an observation/evaluation.

I agree and disagree with Jackson's quote. I believe one can "see" teaching happening, but the missing piece is if during that teaching is learning happening. I feel that sometimes the learning piece is a missing factor from many evaluations. Teachers can teach a great deal of concepts and skills and implement the best laid out lesson, but if students do not learn the information, is it really teaching then? As mentioned earlier in other posts people talk about effective teaching and other wonderful factors that should be looked at like student engagement, relationships with students, motivation, feedback, teacher acknowledgement and learning from the students and where they are at means a great deal. This prepares me as an administrator to take into consideration and look for these other factors when evaluating teachers instructional practices. We have come a long way in 40 years concerning what quality teaching and learning is, and I know that learning will continue to change our ways and what evaluation should/could include in the future. (Laughlin)

Jenny Schutte - I agree with Jackson's comments. It is impossible to really judge the effectiveness of the teacher only by the formal observation. There is so much more that administrators could look at as evidence to a highly effective teacher. I believe the opinions of students are often overlooked. A survey of the students could be used or even visiting with the young ones asking their honest opinions. We all can create a picture in our mind of a great teacher. Sometimes it is hard to pin-point evidence to support our ideas, but the great teachers have more good days than bad. When the bad days occur, they are problem solving on how to make tomorrow a better day. The quote on p.8 which someone mentioned earlier is reflective to my current district and is very true. "New teachers need time to mature. Experienced teachers need to be energized and empowered." The great teachers are always learning. They are participating in professional development evaluating the new research based strategies. They are trying to create a good learning environment for their students because they care.

I have a student teacher in my classroom right now from UNI. I told her the first week that I had a good feeling about her. She displayed personality traits that gave her a firm foundation on becoming an effective teacher. The other "stuff" will come with experience, but there are things that a person must have in order to be a successful teacher which includes (but is not limited to) passion, caring, leadership skills, ability to engage and motivate students, skilled communication, and management of the classroom. I believe that is the foundation. The teaching strategies and knowledge of the subject matter increase with experience.

Finally, Jordan made a good point. As an administrator I better be ready to pay attention to what my teachers are doing, and not just during the 45 minutes of the formal observation. A principal should know what is happening in their building and know their teachers' strengths as well as weaknesses.

@ Jenny Schutte: I put together a building survey for some hours, but mostly because some things that are happening in our building people are very unhappy about. I am excited to get the results back because I am having the 4th and 5th grade students take the survey as well along with parents and all staff in the building. I am hoping that I can guide some changes with the survey! -Dani Carter

The idea that we can see a teaching is not uncommon, but I agree with many of the others that it is much more about learning. However, as someone who is going to evaluate people seeing good teaching should lead to other questions. If you take Katie's example, of seeing great teaching with students engaged and learning, the questions we should ask are about how that environment came to be. One of the traits of being highly effective, is the "with-it-ness" factor - the classroom with great teaching likely has great "with-it-ness".

The ability for learning to happen is the second question - in the small viewing of the classroom we must be sure that we check that the engagement is indeed sinking in. Again, I think that you can see great teaching taking place, but we must follow up with those teachers to ensure that the teaching is impacting student achievement. Clearly, if teaching does not create learning we must reevaluate, however the traits of those highly effective teachers seem to be more observable than measurable.

Clearly there are things that we need to pay attention to, and there is no question that you must be evaluating both the visible teaching and student learning. If we become to singularly focused on one aspect over the other the evaluation will become invalid. There must be multiple pieces used to evaluate to gather a //rounded// opinion. (Einsweiler)

//Sherri Peterson- I visit a lot of classrooms and typically get a feeling about the teacher and the student engagement and learning very quickly after entering the room. In the early childhood classrooms where I spend my time, I am most interested in center time and small group time and how the teacher has the room set up for learning to take place. "Teaching" is most likely not happening at the front of the room, but in the centers where students are engaged in interesting activities and the teacher is facilitating the learning with the use of good questions and adding or subtracting materials as she observes what students are doing and if their interest is waning. Ayers's definition of teaching- "instructing, advising, counseling, organizing, assessing, guiding, goading, showing, managing, modeling, coaching, disciplining, prodding, preaching, persuading, proselytizing, listening, interacting, nursing, and inspiring" illustrates how difficult it is to "get it right" in a classroom. I think that Jackson was actually ahead of his time with this statement. It is even more important in these days of accountability that we see the results of the teaching in the assessment of student learning. While it is important for a teacher to have style and good communication skills, these are not enough. There has to be substance with style and measurable results. //

//I'm much more inclined to believe that there are certain "traits" to watch for when we look for good teaching. I don't agree with Jackson in that we can't walk into a classroom and deduce whether good teaching is taking place. Outside of the traits, there are additional things we can look at such as student engagement, whether the method of teaching style coincides with the learning goal, as well as many items among the Iowa Teaching Standards. When we talk into a classroom, we aren't going to see all of these things or the traits that the author describes, but we're going to see some of them. Jackson does have it right in that this is a difficult task and cannot be culminated in a 45-minute lesson. In that sense, it's just not possible. Nor is it possible in a year of 2-3 observations. This is something that could take multiple observations over a course of a couple of years. Something not included in this chapter is the use and evidence of student achievement. Are the students learning what they are supposed to be learning? As an evaluator, I definitely need to realize that I'm only watching one snapshot of what of the student's learning atmosphere. To better evaluate, perhaps two-day lessons and a portfolio-style evaluative process is in order. (Moran) //

I agree with Jackson's quote and the comments made by many of you. As Jordan pointed out, if the concept, idea or skill is not learned then it was not effectively taught. As Jenny Laughlin pointed out quite often the evaluation is conducted based on the observations made with no follow-up regarding what was learned during the lesson. As Jordan suggested the lesson for us here seems to be the need to go beyond the observations and gather evidence to determine the level of understanding as a result of the instruction.

The ten traits of highly effective teachers are all things we can look for during observations. I feel all could be observed, in particular 4-7 what an effective teacher does should be easily observable. This goes back to the articles and conversations from class, multiple observations and forms of evidence are needed in order to ensure the level of effectiveness seen is not based on one observation, but is the way the teacher goes about business. (Pugh)

I believe anyone can go into a classroom and teach something but to get the students to actually learn it is totally different. This is a shift in thinking that has been taking place recently, how do we know students are learning the material? With this shift, as an evaluator, I do not believe I will be able to walk into a classroom and know if the students are learning just through a one shot observation. If I go back multiple times, meet with teachers and discuss their data, then I should have a better understanding. As we discuss moving from a one shot longer observation to more multiple shorter walkthroughs, I believe we will be able to see if actual learning is taking place. With these walkthroughs, over time I believe you will be able to distinguish quality teaching. Reading through just what the 10 traits of highly effective teachers are I believe will become more apparent as we embrace walkthroughs verses one shot observations. (Breitfelder)

I tend to agree with this statement, but with a few reservations. The idea of just watching someone teach being enough to effectively evaluate tht person is domething I have a hard time with. I think it is essential to have many different data points or artifacts to validate the belief. On the otherhand, it is not enough to see a teacher struggle with one lesson and jump to the conclusion that they need to be terminated or even placed on a plan of assisstance. When discussing the concept of dispositional and situational in terms of teacher evaluation, it is important to use the other information to validate the evlauation. However, in term of only evaluation, I am reserved to agree with this statement because when simply collecting information, contradicts the idea of not being able to see effective teaching in the classroom. For these reasons, I agree with the simple reservation I just mentioned.(Zabel)

(Daters) I actually really like this statement. I think it is a hard truth for evaluators and administration in general. I think this statement challenges evaluators to realize that they cannot step foot in a teacher's classroom once every three years and expect to know what kind of teacher they are or more importantly if they are an effective teacher. I think it comes down again to the question of what is effective and how is that measured. Evaluators need to be in teachers room regularly, weekly if possible and daily would be even better. They need to observe at different times of day, different days of the week, different times of the year, on structured days and on unstructured days. Principals need to feel as if they know a teacher well enough that they can name their teaching styles, their strengths, their weaknesses and also the ways that the teacher most effectively delivers instruction and the way that they ineffectively deliver instruction. Basically, to know a teacher well, the evaluator or principal needs to know more than is probably possible to know BUT if the effort to know as much as possible is put forward, then that is all that can to be unless the system changes.

Sunni Hart- If I think of the evaluation system that is currently in place which only requires an evaluation every three years, along with only 2 observations, then yes I agree with Jackson's comment. Especially, when I have experienced administraotrs running around like mad between the months of February and March to get their observations done so that they can check off people who are onthe evaluation cycle. In my opinion the purpose of evaluation is to help people grow in thier abilities, thier skill sets, persoanlly and professionally. It order for that to happen administraotrs need to have realtionships with thier staff. They need to be supportive, give feedback, and provide learning experiences along the way, whether it is someone's evaluation year or not. Street smarts, teacher-leadership, and having a mental life are traits that you are not going to see in a 45 minutes evaluation. Many of these triats you are going to see over time and when you have developed a realtionship with your teachers.

Cassandra Hart: I do not agree with Jackson qoute. I agree with many of everyone statements.I also believe that having an effective teacher evaluation is at the core of improving the quality and value of education. Evaluations should provide all teachers with regular feedback that helps them grow as professionals, no matter how long they have been in the classroom. Evaluations should give schools the information they need to build the strongest possible instructional teams, and help districts hold school leaders accountable for supporting each teacher’s development. Most importantly, they should focus everyone in a school system, from teachers to the superintendent, on what matters most: keeping every student on track to graduate from high school ready for success in college or a career. Yes, Principals have to be in the classroom more in order for this to be possibe three times or year just wont cut it.